The Extra Dimension

The Extra Dimension #21: Distributed Social Networks

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Almost all of the social networks that we use are centralized, meaning that one company owns everything. Ian, Brandon, and Brian explore what a social network would look like if it were distributed, meaning that there are many servers owned by different people that still communicate with each other.

Episode Summary
00:00:00 | Overview
  • Distributed social network – Wikipedia
    • A system where there are servers run by different entities, and users on the various servers can interact with each other
    • Think of it like email, which is a distributed messaging system
    • Different from a social media aggregator, which helps users manage accounts from several different social media platforms
    • Comparison of software and protocols for distributed social networking – Wikipedia
      • 00:04:37 | Pros
      • In theory, it helps bring control back to the users rather than a single corporate entity that owns the entire stack
      • Much harder for oppressive regimes to block access, since content could be coming from any server
      • Total service outages are much less likely, as content is spread among many servers
      • If a particular server goes offline, users on other servers won’t see content from users on that server until it comes back; they will still see content from users on all other servers though
        • 00:07:41 | Cons
        • Potentially more confusing for the user
        • Some features are infeasible, like verified accounts (except with emoji hacks )
        • Is adding new features harder, since each instance admin would have to update their server?
          • Establish a base protocol, and then extra optional features that can be implemented in order to get more users? Maybe something like IMAP for email?
            • 00:14:30 | Since it’s like email, and email is ubiquitous, does that mean it is inevitable that we will have widespread adoption of distributed social networks?
            • Not really
            • Email is ubiquitous because it has been around for forever, and back when email was created everything was distributed; now the norm is centralized services
            • An email address is required to sign up for most other online accounts, and that won’t be the case for social networks
              • 00:18:42 | GNU Social
              • GNU social
                • 00:23:24 | Mastodon
                • Intended as an alternative to Twitter, so it shares many similarities
                • Increases character limit to 500
                • Privacy and harassment prevention were a focus from the start
                  • Individual posts have several levels of privacy you can choose from
                  • Blocking a user prevents anything from them from showing up, even if boosted by accounts you follow
                  • Content can be hidden behind a content warning, often used for spoilers, NSFW content, or trigger warnings
                  • Different instances can have different content rules
                  • The idea is that smaller communities can police themselves more effectively than a small team at a corporation
                  • Instances (servers)
                    • The administrator of a particular instance can choose whether or not it will be federated with other instances
                    • Some instances are set up as communities of their own around a particular theme
                    • Mastodon allows you to view a timeline of accounts you follow, accounts in your instance, or accounts from any federated instance
                    • Mastodon (software) – Wikipedia
                      • GNU Social compatible
                      • A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the hot new open-source Twitter clone – The Verge
                      • Mastodon.social is an open-source Twitter competitor that’s growing like crazy – The Verge
                      • Welcome to Mastodon – Hacker Noon
                      • Learning from Twitter’s mistakes – Eugen Rochko – Medium
                      • What would Twitter be if it adopted Wikipedia’s politics? | openDemocracy
                      • Mastodon Bridge
                        • A tool for finding your Twitter followees on Mastodon
                        • Latest update on the status of Mastodon
                          • April post-mortem – Eugen Rochko – Medium
                        • BunsenLabs Linux
                          • Attributions
                          • Free Music Archive: The Zombie Dandies – Lo-Fi Hero
                            • Copyright

                            The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to https://thenexus.tv/ted21.

                            This episode of The Extra Dimension has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #425: TED #21 — Audacity Does!!

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